I had the pleasure of catching popular SoCal reggae band Common Sense in Lake Arrowhead this past weekend. The show was part of the resort's free summer concert series, and attracted a huge crowd to the town's Center Stage open air venue.
Though Common Sense regularly pack mid-size venues such as San Diego's Belly Up Tavern, their following is strictly word of mouth. Having been burned by a major label early on in their 15-year career, like many unsigned bands they now connect directly with their fans via their website and MySpace page.
Despite having a loyal fanbase, the size of which many bands can only aspire to get, not to mention a slew of incredibly catchy songs, outside of Native Wayne's Indie 103.1 Sunday afternoon Smoke In show, you'll never hear them on mainstream radio. In fact, outside of the odd novelty recording, you'll rarely hear reggae on FM radio period due to programmers' wide-held and rather bizarre belief that you can only play reggae after April (seriously!!!). Consequently labels see the summertime-only genre as a bad investment in a year round music selling market, hence the serious lack of resources and investment.
As I watch Lake Arrowhead crowd dance with abandon for the best part of three hours against the alpine backdrop, I couldn't help but think how short-sighted and lacking in common sense this sub-tropical reggae policy is.
For those who'd like to hear what they're missing out on, check out prime Common Sense cuts such as "Burn Fire Burn," "Ocean" and "Baby Girl" from their 2004 release Don't Look Back, which is available, along with rest of the band's catalog, via CDBaby.com.
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